I have a p4 2.4Ghz with 512mb and a 30Gb hard disk. I've been trying to install Fedora Core 1 and every time it's runnning through the rpm transactions after copying the install image to the hard disk, the machine shuts down. I've tried installing using the GUI and the text based installer, both had the same abrupt ending. I've also tried varying the list of which programs get installed but it doesn't make any difference. I'm assuming it's something to do with my machine because this use to happen when I installed RH 9. I'd eventually get that installed by cutting down the list of programs I'd choose to install.
Can you try booting with 'linux allowcddma'?
I tried like you said with the allowcddma and at different points through the installation the the X Server crashed. I then tried with allowcddma & text. With these options activated I managed to get to the point just before the files begin to be installed then it shut down again. Could it be a hardware issue with my computer, if so could you recommend what to do?
It does sound a bit like a hardware issue -- could you try running memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com iirc)
It get to about 6% overall complete the shuts down
Congratulations, your machine is either overheating or has a bad component :( You can try adding fans to improve the cooling, returning the clock speed to normal if you've overclocked at all, underclock, etc until that works. But with hardware problems, the install failing isn't really unexpected :/